- The United Kingdom competence control agency points to Apple and Google competition practices in its application stores.
- It is possible that Apple and Google are considered to have a “significant market status” through their “mobile ecosystems” and will be forced to make changes in their operating systems in the territory.
- The investigations have a deadline on October 22, 2025
The United Kingdom Government has announced the launch of two antitrust research on Apple and Google mobile ecosystems by the country’s competence control agency, the market and competition authority (CMA).
In the attached press release, the CMA defined a mobile ecosystem such as “operating systems, application stores and browsers operating on mobile devices.”
The central elements of the research include the scope of competition between Apple and Google ecosystems, how each company can be taking advantage of their power to maintain support points “in other activities” and favor their own platforms, and if any of the companies It is exploiting application developers exerting pressure. Submit them to unfair terms and conditions for their products to be accepted in their respective application stores.
CMA’s research on Apple and Google
The CMA cites “possible behavior requirements” such as allowing users to download applications or content within the application of other sources “more easily” beyond their own application stores. Currently, while Android of Google is a more open operating system that does allow it, IOS of Apple is much more a “walled garden.”
On behalf of the CMA, its executive director, Sarah Cardell, said that “more competitive mobile ecosystems could promote new innovations and new opportunities in a range of services that use millions of people, whether they are applications, browsers or operating systems stores.”
“Better competition,” he said, “could also boost growth here in the United Kingdom, with companies capable of offering new and innovative types of products and services on Apple and Google platforms.”
Both investigations have as a legal deadline on October 22, 2025 and continue to the announcement of a similar investigation into the strategic market status (SMS) on how the Google search engine affects advertisers and editors, as well as their own rivals
The announcement of the CMA of his research on the monopolies of mobile application stores also occurs after the appointment of Doug Gur, former national director of Amazon United Kingdom and president of Amazon China, as interim president days before.
In that statement, the United Kingdom government said that Gurr, currently director of the Natural History Museum, will lead the CMA in “Support[ing] Growth for [the country]”
